Closing of Another Chapter

Welcome back everyone!! As you can tell we once again took a long hiatus as life got busy and other tasks took priority over this blog. It's really a shame though because both Sara and I enjoy writing about our projects and adventures we just tend to stack more on our plate than we have time for, but I digress. On to the latest news and adventures!! 

As you may have seen from the title of this entry we are once again making some big life changes. The last entry I made was about some of the projects we had started in our new home...well new in 2015. Needless to say we have been really busy making it the home we had envisioned. So much so that we hadn't even taken time to look back and see how far we had came until now. 

As you know from our first entry about this house we bought it brand new in 2015, it was a nice little spec house just completed in a quiet neighborhood in my home town. It was very basic with a lot of cheap finishings but we didn't care it was our first brand new home and after our little Cisco house we knew it was the perfect canvas to paint our vision on. Starting with the living room we built the fire place, built in cabinets and book shelves and then installed a large bay window for natural light. We added more lighting in the way of six 3000k LED ceiling lights and then outfitted the book shelves and fireplace mantel with more LED lights. 

From there we went to work on the patio, we framed up and screened it all in. At first we built a bar with quartz top and the grill behind it. It was nice for cooking meals on the grill especially when it was raining out but after having a few gatherings we realized it just took up too much room. So for phase 2 we got rid of the bar and the grill, bought a Traeger for outside and started building out a feature wall/bar that was more usable. Of course this being an outside area and exposed to some weather it needed to be made out of materials that would be resistant to weather. For the back wall we took off the siding and did a corrugated metal bottom trimmed in rough cut cedar then did cedar tongue and groove plank all the way to the ceiling. I built a bar from poplar, stained it then used outdoor poly to seal it all up. right above the bar is some cedar shelves with black pipe brackets and the ever important TV for those evenings of wine, movies and games. We also added a small 10x10 deck for evening fires in the fire pit and cooking on our beloved Traeger. 

The next major project was probably my favorite one, the kitchen. I actually fought doing this one as I liked our kitchen the way it was. Originally it was dark and masculine so naturally I thought it was fine but Sara hated it. Since she is the one who cooks the most and it really didn't flow with the rest of the house I agreed to give it a make over. We started by building a refrigerator cabinet and adding crown moulding to all the upper cabinets. We then  painted the dark cabinets white, which was a big job since I insisted on using my HVLP gun so it had a factory like finish. Once that was done we moved on to custom fitting butches block counter tops. I did a herring bone tile back splash with Carrera tiles that turned out amazing for my first time doing back splash. Then I built a custom island out of oak with a quartz top. This was a risky move since the kitchen isn't that big but it became an awesome usable space the we couldn't imagine not having now. The kitchen was finished up with more lighting...lots of lighting!! For all my projects I like using LED lights, 3000k in the house and 5000k in the garage. In the kitchen we added six, 3" LED ceiling fixtures, two hanging globes, one over sink can light and eight under cabinet light bars. Needless to say it is an amazing place to cook and photograph food. 

As these projects got finished up we kept falling more and more in love with our home. So much so that we actually thought about selling our lake lot (that's right we haven't talked about that yet). We considered putting in an in ground pool and just settling in but like usual we decided to chase more rainbows!! Like I eluded to a second ago we bought a lot on our local lake with plans to one day build our real dream house. With the housing market the way it is we looked at what our home was now worth with the addition of all of our hard work and decided now was the time to sell. So after buttoning up some loose ends and giving the house a good cleaning we got these pictures taken you see here and she went on the market. As of now we have accepted an offer from a young couple who immediately fell in love with the house and are ready to embark on their next adventures in this home. 

My plan with the blog from this point on is to document our build process from start to finish (although my projects are never finished). I hope to take you along with us as we navigate this process and hopefully build something even more spectacular than the last house. So now we say goodbye to Honeysuckle Lane and hello to our rental townhome while we get serious about the dream home. 

Thank you for sticking with us through these adventures, we hope that you are staying healthy and chasing your own rainbows. 

Nathan 

We have been away but we have been busy

Since Sara resurrected this blog I figured I would join in and contribute.  Just because we moved into our brand new home doesn't mean we haven't been knocking out projects like we did with out little green house. I have so much to share this will probably take several posts to get you all caught up but hey thats part of the fun.

To recap what has happened I suppose we should go back to where we left off. After putting the finishing touched on our out little green house we almost immediately put it up for sale. Of course our realtor told us we were crazy for what we were asking but we had faith in our work and knew someone would see what we had created and fall in love with it. Wouldn't you know, 30 days later we were under contract and had our offer accepted for our new home. We decided to move back to my home town to a new subdivision that is mostly spec homes. The house we bought was just being finished and had most of the things we wanted but was very basic, of course Sara knew I wouldn't let it stay that way for long.

The first project I got started on was and still is the statement piece in our home. My father still lives in the house I grew up in and the thing I remember most about growing up in that house is the many holidays, cold winter days and nights spent in front of the fireplace. He built that fireplace himself when I was a baby. Brick by brick he built something so strong it would hold up to every bit of abuse you can imagine a family throwing at it and I wanted the same thing. To me a fireplace isn't just a spot in the house to have a fire, it is where everyone gathers, its where you make your guests feel at home and its where I sit after a long shift at my day job and remind myself why i work long hard hours.

So as the construction began we had to make sure everything was just right, like the perfect position so Ms. Hershey could lay in front of the warm fire.

We chose Airstone after watching some youtube videos reviewing the product. The variations in colors, ease of working with and solid feel really fit this project well. Although I did have some issues with their adhesive so I ended up using a stone construction adhesive that worked much better.

Just for reference this is a 7ft tall step ladder next to the fireplace, that is also a 70" TV hung up there. Everything about this project is super sized but that adds to the overall statement it makes.

Once the stone was all up I began to build the cabinets. It had been a long time since I had done any cabinet making and had never built anything this big but I knew we had a solid design so I kept at it until each piece was done.

 Once everything was stained, put in place and all of the accent lighting was wired up it was time to enjoy what we created and start making memories here.

I am a wrapper

Normally I hate wrapping gifts, they are always clunky, uneven, and I usually spend way too much money on all of the cute Target papers.  This year I was inspired, by a cute, and very inexpensive alternative.  My inspo came from Lauren McBride, her style and ideas are impeccable!

While mine aren't quite as fancy as hers, I am really happy with the outcome...and the price! 

Craft paper from Dollar Tree = one dollar
Twine, ribbon, string = free (found some at home)
Ornaments = one dollar for a ton of ornaments from Goodwill.

Honey cinnamon butter- inexpensive gifts

Easy peasy neighbor, work, teacher,or just general holiday gift. I spent under 10 dollars for a total of 24 treats. Granted I already had much of the ingredients and supplies.  Every year I pass out honey cinnamon butter to my neighbors ( lucky them).  Unfortunately, if you have read my past food posts you know that I don’t measure, hence my sub par baking skills.  BUT the butter is so super simple. I use salted butter, a lot of honey and powdered sugar ( around 1 cup each, per each cup of butter) ,  and a dash of cinnamon. Whip it good- mixer, low speed till blended and then crank it up.  Seriously so good- better than Texas Roadhouse.

I was really looking for a cute and inexpensive way to present them. I had several small jelly mason jars hanging out- perfect size for butter. I ran to the dollar tree and found a red/green plaid outside table cloth. I also bought poinsettia treat bags ( not pictured) for the cookies. I cut the tablecloth into small squares and used it on the lid, I punched small holes in the baggies, and tied everything together with some colored twine.  There you have it- super easy-super yummy-super inexpensive.

We're back!!!

First of all let me apologize to our followers for the hiatus we have taken from posting on this blog. We had so many things going on and have been so busy with "chasing our rainbows" that we just never found the time to update things. Since either of us posted last so many things have happened for us. We have accomplished goals and completed projects that turned out a million times better than we could have ever expected but the biggest change was we sold our little green house that we put so much work and effort into and bought a brand new home!! I know some of you may think "oh no, no more fun projects", well not true, we have even bigger plans and more projects in mind for this house than the last!! So I guess some catching up is in order, we will start with the little green house and some of the final projects we completed. The first major project was a kitchen redo, the main part of the kitchen was just simply taking some cabinets down and replacing them with shelves and a pan rack, painting the cabinets bright white and the walls a great light grey. The second part of the kitchen was a huge project but made all the difference in the world. We took the laundry closet that was in the kitchen and made a built in laundry/fridge/wine cabinet. That took the refrigerator from being in almost the middle of the kitchen to tucked neatly along the wall really opening things up!!

The next project had been in progress for awhile, if you remember when we moved in one of our first posts was about the large concrete steps that had settled against the foundation that we used non explosive demolition compound on. I knew what I wanted to do with the front porch but never seemed to find the time to tackle it but when we decided it was time to get serious about our new home I knew I had to really improve the curb appeal and it turned out exactly as I had pictured it the first time I saw the house!!!

That pretty much sums up the major projects for the little green house, it was a great little house for our family that allowed us to tie up some loose ends in life and make the jump towards our next rainbow.

Cheesy Eggplant and Butternut Squash bake

It has been a while!  Life always seems to take over no matter how hard I try to keep this blog updated every week.  The good news is that Nathan is working on an exciting new addition to the blog...but I will let him tell you about that.  While I haven't been posting new and fun recipes I have still been creating them!  I have several on reserve for future blogs BUT the one that I made tonight was just so delicious I had to post ASAP.  Initially I was going to make my regular ol eggplant lasagna and just tweak it a bit, but then I saw a lonely old butternut squash sitting on my counter and I decided to incorporate it into my lasagna, and I am so glad I did.  While this recipe is grain free it is definitely  Not dairy free (sorry all of you lactose intolerant peeps).  I am lactose intolerant, but cheeses like parmesan, ricotta, cottage, and small amounts of mozzarella don't seem to bother me much, plus I just try to keep my serving size to a minimum, with this recipe that was super hard!

Normally when I make eggplant lasagna I cut the eggplant into discs and throw it in the dish, this time I decided to brush each side with egg, sprinkle a little coconut flour, parmesan cheese, and Italian herbs over it and bake at 350 for roughly 15 minutes (more eggplant parmesan-ish style).

While that was baking I cut a butternut squash in half covered loosely with plastic wrap and microwaved for about 7 minutes, just until tender.  I cubed the squash and spread it out on a lightly sprayed baking sheet, sprinkled a little pepper on it and threw that in the oven for 20 minutes after I removed the eggplant.

 While the squash was in the oven I began sautéing onion, fresh spinach and added red pepper pasta sauce (or any pasta sauce you like).

You can see the baked eggplant in this picture, yum.  Golden brown.

Next comes the cheesy goodness, I mixed roughly 1.5 cups of cottage cheese with 2 eggs a fourth a cup of parmesan and more Italian seasoning.

I pulled the squash out of the oven after they had a nice roasted taste and began layering.  Pasta sauce, Eggplant, Squash, Cottage cheese, Pasta Sauce, Eggplant, 1.5 cups of Ricotta cheese, Pasta sauce, grated Mozzarella cheese.

I baked covered with foil for roughly 15 minutes, and then until the cheese on top was golden brown (about 20 more minutes) uncovered.

I must say this is one of my favorite accidental recipes yet!

Enjoy

Recipe List

2  Medium eggplants
1 Butternut squash
3-4 Eggs
1.5 C Ricotta cheese
1.5 C Cottage cheese
1/4 C grated Mozzarella
1/2 C Parmesan
1/2 onion
2 C Pasta sauce of your liking
Sprinkling of Coconut Flour
Large handful of fresh spinach
Italian Seasoning
Pepper

Buddhism

This week has been busy and exhausting.  I have some exciting news (well to me at least!),  I have been approved to present two presentations on different forms of Buddhism, one being the emerging role of Buddhism practices into Clinical Psychology for healing of Mental Illness.  The other being a semester long immersion into the Buddhist culture in which I will visit Temples, attend sittings and fingers crossed get to attend a 3 day retreat!  Yippie!  I am so mesmerized by this culture and hope that I can incorporate some of the practices that I will learn into my every day life.

At any rate, I am sure I will have another recipe ready for you next Sunday!  I will leave you with this because I like it...